. >> reporter: a mild afternoon in lynchburg, virginia and eben and holly alexander are at a high school soccer camp cheering on their son. they are a perfectly ordinary family with an extraordinary story. they have been touched by a medical miracle and maybe more. >> i mean, it was impossible after impossible after impossible. >> reporter: eben alexander, a harvard-trained neurosurgeon who was a skeptic when came to religion survived a near-death experience and he now carries the memory of what he says was a journey to heaven. a journey that all his scientific training cannot explain. on november 10th, 2008 eben awoke with a searing headache. when his wife holly checked in on him he was having a tremendous seizure. >> i said, say something. he didn't say anything so i called 911. >> reporter: eben was rushed to the hospital. >> the only word woe could truly make out was help and the rest of his verbalization was purely screaming. >> reporter: he had been stricken with an extremely rare and virulent e. coli meningitis infection that was raf rajjing his brain plunging him into a coma. >>